Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 203 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For the vertical slit, choose the branch of asymptotic to at infinity. It is the mapping-out function of a compact H-hull for , andThus half-plane capacity of a vertical slit givesThe endpoint is merely part of the boundary closure convention.
For the filled upper half-disc , the conformal map maps the exterior half-disc onto . Indeed, it sends the semicircle to , the remaining real boundary to the complementary intervals, and its inverse is the branch of asymptotic to . Hence half-plane capacity of a half-disc givesIf denotes the open unit disc, the printed is not relatively closed and is literally not a compact H-hull. The intended value is the one for its filled relative closure . With a closed-disc convention the displayed notation already represents that hull.
For a nonempty compact H-hull , its closure meets : otherwise a nonempty compact set strictly inside would be separated from the lower half-plane in the complement, contradicting the simply connected domain condition for . Choose and put . Taking limits in the definition of diameter shows for every . Thus lies in the filled half-disc of radius centered at . Its half-plane capacity is by scaling and translation of half-plane capacity. Using monotonicity of half-plane capacity,For the empty compact H-hull, use diameter zero. This proves the unit-constant version of half-plane capacity is bounded by squared diameter; no claim of optimality of the constant is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 203 2 a ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write and let be the relatively closed hull obtained by mapping the increment through . For a bounded compact H-hull , defineThe Loewner local growth property isOne can equivalently use diameter: for a nonempty compact H-hull, , using a point of its closure on for the second inequality. The condition concerns the mapped increment, not the original difference , which can be large when a narrow opening closes. It makes growth occur near one continuous Loewner driving function rather than by a sudden addition at separated boundary points.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 203 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the Chordal Loewner equation with . For a fixed , let be its Loewner swallowing time, and write and before that time. The Loewner conformal radius is , half of the conformal radius of at . The Koebe quarter theorem bounds the conformal radius above by four times the distance to the boundary. For the reverse comparison, if maps zero to , apply the Schwarz lemma to on the unit disc, where ; it gives . ThusWe use the basic trace theorems that, for , the Loewner trace is continuous and Transience of chordal SLE gives . These facts make its image relatively closed in ; they do not assume the space-filling conclusion. The continuity and transience statements are available in Rohde and Schramm's basic trace theorems.
Take in the supplied SLE interior-point martingale. The derivative exponent vanishes, leavingA nonnegative local martingale is a supermartingale. Applying the optional stopping theorem after localization at its first hit of a level gives the maximal inequality for a nonnegative supermartingaleThus almost surely.
Suppose the Loewner trace avoids some open ball whose closure is inside . Before , the whole open ball is in : a connected open ball disjoint from the trace cannot be partly in the unbounded connected component. Hence . The bound on forces throughout this interval, for a positive random constant .
The Chordal Loewner equation and its derivative yieldThe first identity forces , since otherwise becomes negative. At a finite maximal lifetime, ; otherwise the continuous Loewner driving function and the ordinary differential equation continue past that time. Integrating the last identity, using , givescontradicting . Thus every fixed rational ball inside is hit almost surely. A countable intersection makes the trace a dense subset almost surely, and its relatively closed image, established by continuity and transience, then contains all of :This proves space-filling SLE above parameter eight. It rules out unvisited open regions, rather than inferring visits merely from membership in the filled compact H-hulls. The choice does not address the critical value eight.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 203 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let , and take another admissible compact H-hull in the image complex upper half-plane. Form the hull , including its relative closure and filling bounded complementary components if needed. Its mapping-out function of a compact H-hull isIndeed, this composition maps the correct remaining domain onto , and its constant term at infinity is zero. Since , the chain rule givesBoth derivatives are positive by local Schwarz reflection principle and boundary orientation. Therefore the assumed avoidance formula givesThe conditioning event has positive probability because .
It remains to justify that these equalities determine the law. For a proper simple curve from to infinity, its complement has two sides, each connected to an interval of the real boundary. Any point off the curve lies in a thin polygonal tube attached to that boundary which avoids both the curve and zero; its closure, with an end cap, is an admissible compact H-hull. A countable collection of tubes with rational geometry therefore reconstructs the complement as the union of the tubes avoided by the curve.
The joint distribution of their avoidance indicators is also determined. Avoiding finitely many tubes is equivalent to avoiding the filled union when that union is admissible. If the union separates from infinity, avoidance is impossible and the joint probability is zero. Otherwise a simple curve cannot enter the bounded complementary pockets without crossing the union, so filling does not change the avoidance event. Finite joint avoidance probabilities consequently come from the same single-hull formulas; inclusion-exclusion principle supplies every finite indicator pattern. These patterns determine the random complement and hence the unparameterized simple trace.
Thus avoidance probabilities determine a simple chordal curve law, and the conditional image law above equals the original law. This proves the derivative avoidance criterion for chordal restriction, giving the chordal restriction property. Simplicity is essential to this reconstruction argument; it should not be replaced by a claim that arbitrary random closed sets are determined by these hull-avoidance tests.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 101 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
We first establish the nilradical as the intersection of prime ideals:Every nilpotent element belongs to every prime ideal. In the other direction, if is not nilpotent, the multiplicative subset avoids zero. By the Zorn lemma, there is an ideal maximal among those disjoint from . It is a prime ideal: if and neither nor belongs to , then and each meet . Multiplying elements in these two intersections gives an element of lying in , a contradiction. Since , this proves the identity. The identity also holds for the zero ring, with the intersection over an empty family interpreted as the whole ring.
A Zariski-closed set contains the image of exactly whenThe last equality follows because is a nilpotent element exactly when for some . Consequently the smallest Zariski-closed set containing the image, namely its closure, isThis is all of precisely when the kernel of a ring homomorphism is contained in every prime ideal of . Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 130 4 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The answer is no. Let , regarded as one point of the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers, and putThe displayed union makes an open set in the Ellentuck topology. On the other hand, every basic neighbourhood of contains a different infinite set: keep and remove one element from its infinite remaining tail. This other point belongs to . Therefore is in the closure of but not in , soThe fact that basic neighbourhoods are clopen sets does not make arbitrary unions of them closed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ib Paper 1 10F c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
This is always true. The continuous image of a connected space is connected. Its closure is also connected: if the closure were separated into disjoint nonempty relatively open sets, connectedness would put inside one of them, preventing its closure from meeting the other. Since is dense in , its closure is , so is connected.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ib Paper 3 11F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A topological space is connected when it is not the union of two disjoint nonempty open subsets. It is path-connected when every two points can be joined by a path, meaning a continuous map with and .
To prove that is connected, suppose it had a separation with . LetWhichever of or contains , its relative openness supplies an interval about that contradicts either the definition of the supremum or the fact that all points immediately below lie in . Thus no separation exists.
If is path-connected and were a separation, choose and . A path from to would make the union of the disjoint nonempty open sets and , contradicting the connectedness just proved. Hence
Now let be open. Every point lies in an open ball contained in , and an open ball is path-connected by straight line segments. It follows that every path component of is open. If there were more than one path component, one component and the union of all the others would separate . Consequently a connected open subset of Euclidean space is path-connected. The converse follows from the preceding implication.
The same argument answers the locally Euclidean question affirmatively. Every point has a neighbourhood homeomorphic to an open subset of , hence a path-connected open neighbourhood after restricting to a sufficiently small ball. Thus is locally path-connected, its path components are open, and connectedness forces there to be only one.
For the final example, putThe set is path-connected: each vertical segment meets the horizontal segment . The segment is also path-connected and lies in the closure of , because for every . A connected set together with a connected subset of its closure is connected, so
It is not path-connected. The image of the first coordinate of any path in lies inbut, while the path has positive height, its first coordinate lies in the totally disconnected set . A path beginning on cannot leave before reaching height zero, and contains no point with . Hence no path joins to , and
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 151 1 c i Solution 2026-09-28
The canonical image of is dense in its profinite completion . Therefore every is a limit of a net in . Continuity of conjugation givesso every element of lies in the closure of . The reverse inclusion follows because the larger conjugacy class contains the smaller one and is closed by part b(iii). Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ib Paper 4 2G Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-10-03
The closure is the intersection of all closed subsets containing ; equivalently, every neighbourhood of a point of meets . The subspace is dense when . A space is Hausdorff when distinct points have disjoint neighbourhoods.
For Hausdorff , the diagonal is closed in . Thusis closed. Since it contains the dense set , it equals .
The conclusion fails without Hausdorffness. Let have the Sierpiński space topology and let , which is dense. The identity map and the constant map with value are continuous and agree on , but differ at .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 130 3 Solution 2026-09-28
Hindman theorem states that every finite coloring of admits an infinite sequence whose finite-sums set is monochromatic.
Identify the Stone-Čech compactification of the natural numbers with the compact Hausdorff space of ultrafilters on , equipped with addition on the Stone-Čech compactification of the natural numbers. This makes a compact Hausdorff left-topological semigroup. For completeness, the Ellis–Numakura lemma gives an idempotent in every such semigroup: by the Hausdorff space property and compactness, the intersection of a descending chain of nonempty compact subsemigroups is nonempty, so Zorn's lemma gives a minimal one . For , the compact subsemigroup equals . Hence the nonempty compact subsemigroupis also , and in particular . Choose the resulting idempotent ultrafilter on the natural numbers .
One color class belongs to . For , writeand defineThe identity implies . It also implies that for every : both and the set of for which belongs to lie in , and their intersection is .
Choose . Having chosen with every nonempty finite sum in , chooseThis is possible because it is a finite intersection of members of the ultrafilter . Every old finite sum remains in , and every new one has the form and also lies in . By mathematical induction, all nonempty finite sums lie in , proving Hindman's theorem.
Now putfor each . If , then their intersection belongs to and is nonempty, whileThus the sets have the finite intersection property. Their closures are closed subsets of the compact interval , so their total intersection contains some . Equivalently, every neighbourhood of meets every ; this is the ultrafilter limit of the sequence.
The point is unique. If distinct points both had this property, choose disjoint neighborhoods . The index set must belong to , because otherwise its complement would belong to and the associated would miss . Similarly . Their intersection is empty, contradicting the definition of an ultrafilter.